In Band-e-Amir National Park, located high up in the Hindu Kush mountains in Afghanistan, there are six incredibly beautiful mountain lakes with crystal-clear waters. Since visiting the place in 2014, underwater photographer and retired commercial pilot Frode Uhre had dreamed of diving there. With written permission from the Taliban headquarters in Kabul and air tanks from the market in Kabul, his dream came true.
Contributed by
In autumn 2019, I got in touch with Gul Hussain Baizada, a guide with Silk Road Afghanistan & Travel. He promised to try to help me find compressed air tanks in the country. I had planned to visit Afghanistan in the summer of 2020, but the COVID-19 pandemic put a stop to that.
When travel restrictions eased in 2021, I tried to get there before the American troops were scheduled to withdraw from the country in August. However, in spring 2021, Gul informed me that it was too dangerous because of the Taliban’s rapid advances. In the hectic final days before the Americans withdrew in August and the Taliban took power in Afghanistan, Gul managed to flee with his family first to Italy and then on to New Zealand.
Finally, in the summer of 2022, I got the green light from Gul in New Zealand. His contacts in Kabul now said it would be possible. Gul got one of his friends in Kabul to check if there were any firefighters’ air tanks available. After some searching in the Kabul market, he sent me photos of some old, rusty tanks that appeared to have DIN threads. I decided to take the chance.
Taliban permission for the dive expedition
Gul’s contacts in Afghanistan obtained written permission from the Taliban headquarters in Kabul for me to dive in Band-e-Amir. Gul also obtained a letter of invitation for me. With these two documents in hand, I travelled to Dubai to apply for a visa at the Afghan embassy, which was now under Taliban control.
The embassy staff were extremely helpful. I was offered tea and had to go through a short interview, during which I was repeatedly asked whether I was really sure I wanted to go diving in Afghanistan. But they then stamped my passport and wished me a safe journey. The only airline flying to Afghanistan was the local company Kam Air. The flight departed just after midnight, so I immediately bought a ticket for that evening.
Cockpit seat
At the gate at Dubai Airport, I could see that Kam Air was using an Airbus A340. A little later, I spotted the Kam Air crew on their way to the gate. I went up to the captain, told him that as a pilot with SAS, I had also flown the Airbus A340, and asked if I could sit in the cockpit and watch the approach to Kabul. “Yes, of course,” he replied with a big smile. A few hours later, as we approached Kabul Airport, the captain explained to me that the “targets” we could see on the navigation screen were American drones. Amazing!
Underwater camera causes a stir at customs
At the airport, customs officers quickly spotted my large underwater camera, and it took some time to explain that I was going on a “diving holiday” in Afghanistan. However, once they had seen the permit issued by the Taliban, I was permitted to enter the country. Outside the airport, my interpreter, Maisam, and my driver, Shirzay, were waiting for me.
Firefighters’ air tanks
I was excited to go see the compressed air tanks that Maisam had found at the market in Kabul and sent me photos of. So, we drove straight to the market. A guy named Masoud welcomed us into his small shop, where he sold all kinds of compressed air tanks. Unfortunately, the tanks that Maisam had sent photos of turned out to have slightly larger threads than DIN. However, Masoud found a single tank with a DIN connection.
Then, to my great surprise, I saw three ordinary dive tanks with yoke valves standing in one corner of the small shop. Masoud explained that they had been left behind by British special forces when they left the country with the Americans.
Unfortunately, I had not brought my DIN/yoke adapter, but Masoud had two DIN valves lying around and fitted them onto two of the diving tanks. We then drove to a filling station in Kabul to get the tanks filled. They had never filled dive tanks before and asked several times if I was sure that I just wanted atmospheric air in the tanks.
The last item I needed was a weight belt. Of course, I knew before I left home that I would not be able to find one in Kabul. However, people in Afghanistan are crazy about bodybuilding, and Maisam knew someone who had a gym. There, I was allowed to borrow 20kg of weights from the bench press. Now, we were ready.
Dressed in local clothing
Early the next morning, we set off for Bamyan, the last real town before Band-e-Amir National Park. To attract as little attention as possible, Maisam had gotten me some local Afghan clothing: a long tunic with long trousers underneath. There was even a headscarf, which I wore in some places where we had to get out of the car.
My underwater camera was on the back seat, covered with a blanket, and the dive tanks were in the boot. On the way, we passed between 20 and 25 Taliban checkpoints, but most of the time, they did not notice that I was not Afghan. If they did, Maisam would explain to them what we were doing.
The passing landscapes were stunningly beautiful. In the fields, people were harvesting potatoes or ploughing. Oxen and donkeys were used to pull small single-bladed wooden ploughs. We stopped at one of the fields to take some pictures of the work in progress.
I observed one young guy effortlessly controlling the animals so that the plough went perfectly straight. I could not resist asking Maisam if I could try ploughing with the ox and donkey. After brief instruction, I set the ox and donkey in motion. I tried desperately to get the animals to pull the plough straight, but I did not succeed very well.
The farmer and his wife were laughing hysterically. A group of girls, who were busy gathering potatoes, stopped working and stood there giggling. I quickly decided to stop my embarrassing attempt at ploughing so that the work in the field could continue.
When we reached the city gate in front of Bamyan, there was a large checkpoint manned by 20 to 25 Taliban. All were armed to the teeth. Several pick-up trucks with large machine guns mounted on the back were parked there. Maisam told me that he had to introduce me here. The Taliban were all very friendly towards me, saying through my interpreter that they were happy I wanted to visit their country.
We were told that the diving permit issued by the Taliban leader in Kabul also needed to be signed by the local Taliban leader. However, as it was Friday and they were preparing for Friday prayers, we had to wait until Saturday morning. We found a hotel in the city where we could spend the night.
A new permit
The next morning, we went to the Department of Information and Culture in Bamyan. In a dusty office, two men of Hazara descent sat. They told us that they had studied biology and economics at university, but that after the Taliban took power, they had been forced to work as secretaries for them.
They wrote a new application for me and told me to go to another office at the end of the corridor to have it signed. When I entered, I was welcomed by a big-bearded Taliban man, who asked me to sit down on the sofa. On the wall behind him hung a large white Taliban flag with the familiar black lettering. But the Taliban guy was nice and friendly.
Although he did not speak English, he welcomed me to Afghanistan through my interpreter. He said he was glad I wanted to come and experience his country and hoped I felt safe under the new regime. I thought to myself that now was probably not the time to start discussing girls’ rights to education, people’s right to listen to music or human rights in general. So, I truthfully answered that I did feel safe travelling in his beautiful country after the Taliban had taken power. He smiled contentedly, signed and stamped my permit and even allowed me to take a few photos. He then asked if I would like to show some of my underwater photographs and give a short talk to the Taliban after I had dived in Band-e-Amir. As my interpreter and I were on our way out the door, the Taliban guy stopped us, wrote his phone number on a small piece of paper and said with a warm smile, “Call me if you have any problems here in Afghanistan, and I’ll help you.”
Band-e-Amir National Park
We drove back to the hotel and packed all my dive gear in the car. The hotel owner told us that he had grown up near Band-e-Amir National Park and knew the area like the back of his hand. He offered to come with us. One of his friends, who was a doctor in town, was also coming along.
Established in 2009, Band-e-Amir National Park was the country’s first national park. It was a popular destination for locals. Since it was a national holiday, there would be more people than usual there this Saturday. There was a car park 500 metres from the lake where we parked. A couple of boys quickly spotted all my dive gear and came over with their wheelbarrows, offering to help carry it down to the shore for a modest fee.
A couple of armed Taliban guards stared wide-eyed at me when they saw me with the large underwater camera slung over my shoulder and the two wheelbarrows full of dive tanks and gear. However, when they saw my permit, there were no problems. We continued to the lake shore, where lots of men, women and children were enjoying the good weather. Down by the lake shore, people gathered around me as I put on my drysuit and started preparing my dive gear. Once I had all my gear on, I attached 20kg of fitness weights to my wing, hoping that it would be enough.
Diving
The lakes in Band-e-Amir are located at an altitude of 2,900 metres, making this quite an extreme altitude dive. I therefore decided not to dive too deep.
I dived down to a depth of 8 to 10 metres and followed the shoreline. The water was amazingly clear. Although I did not see as many fish as I had hoped, there was beautiful vegetation. It was also a great feeling to finally be diving in Afghanistan after planning it for so long. When I came up from the dive, a lot of curious people gathered around me again.
I had told Maisam that I wanted to do a night dive in the hope of getting close to the fish. The hotel owner suggested we drive to one of the other lakes to do the night dive. There was a gravel road that went almost all the way down to the shore of the other lake, but we still had to carry our equipment for about 15 minutes along a small path for the last bit down to the shore. After attaching the macro lens to the underwater camera, I sat and enjoyed the beautiful view of the Hindu Kush mountain range while waiting for it to get dark.
Night dive
I decided to do the night dive using the remaining air in the first dive tank. I saved both the second dive tank and the firefighters’ air tank for the next day. As I turned on my dive torch and slowly glided down through the dark water, I was excited to see what would appear in the beam of light. I was not disappointed. I saw lots of fish, most of which were species new to me. I was also pretty sure that no one had ever dived or taken underwater photographs in this lake before. When I surfaced from my night dive, it was pitch black in the mountains, and the starry sky was absolutely amazing. What a magical place.
My plan was to do more dives over the next few days, but since it was a several-hour drive back to Bamyan, Maisam and I agreed to try and find a local family to stay with near the lake, as the area was quite deserted and there were no hotels. However, Maisam suddenly said that the doctor did not like the idea. He thought it was too risky because too many people had seen me. He was also afraid of kidnapping. So, when I got out of my drysuit, we threw all our gear back into the car and drove all the way back to Bamyan through the murky darkness of the night.
Once again, there were lots of Taliban checkpoints along the road. Several hundred metres before reaching one, they shone their laser lights on the road ahead of us to make it clear that we had to stop. However, every time the Taliban guys saw my permit from Bamyan, they waved us through without any problems.
Topside excursion
Early the next morning, I accompanied Maisam out to the fields just outside the city, where the farmers were busy harvesting potatoes. This was, of course, done by hand. Behind the fields, one could see the two caves where two enormous Buddha figures carved out of sandstone once stood. These statues had been the tallest Buddha figures in the world, but the Taliban blew them up with dynamite in 2001 on the orders of their leader, Mullah Mohammed Omar, because statues of gods were contrary to Sharia law. The Buddha statues dated back to the 6th century, and the largest of them was 55 metres high.
Second day of diving
In the afternoon, we drove back to the Band-e-Amir lakes. We followed a dirt road as far as possible by car and then carried all our gear the last bit down to the lakeshore. The weather was perfect, and the lake’s waters glowed a beautiful opalescent blue in the afternoon sun.
My first dive of the day, done in daylight, was a bit boring as I did not see many fish. However, when it got dark, I went on another night dive. Although it was only a few metres deep over a boring sandy bottom, it was actually really nice. There were lots of interesting fish sleeping on the sand.
After the dive, we had to carry all our gear up a steep path from the lake to the car for 20 strenuous minutes, illuminated by our headlamps. This was not the best activity to throw oneself into right after a 3,000m-deep dive, so I was glad I had not dived that deep. It was almost midnight by the time we got back to the hotel in Bamyan.
After spending a few lovely days in Bamyan, we drove back towards Kabul, passing through the beautiful Koh-i-Baba mountains and over the 3,000m-high Hajigak mountain pass. When I visited Bamyan in 2014, driving along this route was completely out of the question. It was known as “Death Road” due to the numerous roadside bombs (IEDs), assassinations, armed attacks and random kidnappings carried out by the Taliban. Now, however, it was quiet and peaceful, and as we drove, I enjoyed the beautiful landscapes gliding by.
Final thoughts
After the Taliban took power in August 2021, they introduced a lot of restrictions for the local population, including banning women from visiting Band-e-Amir, as they believed women would not wear hijabs while they were up there. However, if you want to visit Afghanistan, I think it is now safer than it has been for the last 20 years.
Only two Afghan airlines, Ariana Afghan Airlines and Kam Air, operated international routes from Kabul after the Taliban takeover in 2021. But in October last year, FlyDubai launched a route to Kabul, the first non-Afghan airline to do so. ■
Thanks go to Gul Hussain Baizada for his help in arranging the diving trip in Afghanistan. He runs the tour company A2A Journey (a2ajourney.co.nz).
